The nation’s top wholesale mortgage lender doesn’t care about your resume; they want to make sure their employees are a culture fit.

United Shore recruits talented people, develops them through an extensive training program and coaches them to be leaders.

Is there anything more frustrating than getting rejected for a job in a different industry because you don’t have experience in that specific field?

Probably not. And luckily for a lot of people throughout Metro Detroit who are looking to make a career change, United Shore has taken that into account.

The Pontiac-based mortgage company, known both as a top national workplace and the No. 1 wholesale mortgage lender in the country, has made it a point to set a unique standard when it comes to the job history of its applicants.

For most positions, United Shore doesn’t care what your background is. The company knows that the mortgage industry is a niche space that not everyone has worked in before. Job candidates don’t need prior mortgage experience because, once hired, the company’s team of more than 40 dedicated training professionals provides extensive initial, ongoing and real-time training to teach the skills and knowledge needed to be successful.

The company even built out 12 state-of-the art training rooms in its new 600,000-square-foot Pontiac headquarters solely to support its training initiatives.

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United Shore

United Shore's new headquarters in Pontiac is a 600,000-square-foot building on a 60-acre campus.

Instead of putting great emphasis on job history in its evaluation of job candidates, United Shore breaks it down into much simpler metrics to discover potentially impactful employees — it identifies people that are a culture fit.

By that, United Shore means it values strong work ethic and a positive, hard-working, coachable attitude over an abundance of experience and a long list of credentials in the field.

“I don’t care about your resume. I don’t care about what school you went to. I don’t care about what you did at your last company,” United Shore President and CEO Mat Ishbia said in a 2017 interview with Business Insider. “[Work ethic and attitude] is what’s going to dictate your success at our company and your success in life.”

United Shore puts its money where its mouth is, so to speak.

Ishbia mentions the company’s preference for promoting internal team members into leadership roles instead of bringing in “hired guns,” citing the company’s focus on its team members’ career growth.

Through September, United Shore had promoted more than 700 team members since 2017 and plans for that number to exceed 1,200 by the end of 2020.

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United Shore

A river raft serves as a conference room of sorts at United Shore in Pontiac.

One way United Shore facilitates the transition of professionals from different lines of work into its business is by running an annual 12-month rotational program — dubbed as its Business Innovation Group (BIG) — that has a group of people spend time with various teams throughout the company to see where their skill set best aligns.

A couple years ago, the company held a “Moms Back to Business” Career Fair specifically for women who had previously chosen to stay home with their children full time and were looking to re-enter the workforce.

United Shore has created a reputation as a “destination company,” one that looks to add team members “from the time they’re hired until the time they’re retired.” If you’re looking to grow a successful and impactful long-term career, give United Shore a look. The only prior experience required: history of a strong work ethic and positive attitude.